1. Field of the Invention
A technology disclosed by this specification relates to a female terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,746 discloses a female terminal to be connected to a plate-like male terminal. This female terminal includes an electrical connecting portion that resiliently sandwiches the plate-like male terminal, a wire connecting portion to be connected to an end of a wire and a protection member for covering the electrical connecting portion. The electrical connecting portion has two pairs of resilient pieces on upper and lower side walls of a tubular base and bent to have a rectangular cross-section. The resilient piece is inclined in to a front side from the side wall and a tip part thereof is bent out into an arcuate shape.
However, the above-described female terminal does not have excessive deflection preventing pieces for preventing excessive deflection of each resilient piece when a load is applied to each resilient piece, such as due to the rolling of the male terminal. Excessive deflection preventing pieces could be formed by cutting and bending parts of upper and lower walls of the protection member. However, the resilient pieces would be supported at one position by the excessive deflection preventing pieces. As a result, seated postures of the resilient pieces on the excessive deflection preventing pieces become unstable and a contact pressure with the male terminal becomes unstable. Further, a stress received from the excessive deflection preventing piece by the resilient piece is concentrated on one position. Thus, the contact pressure with the male terminal varies when the resilient piece is deformed plastically.
Accordingly, an object of this disclosure is to maintain performance of a resilient piece within a range where the resilient piece is not deformed plastically.